Swedes power past Chadron

Written by Deb Egenberger
Thursday, 08 November 2012 14:17

Gothenburg advances to third round of playoffs

CHADRON—It isn’t smoke and mirrors.

Gothenburg football coach Craig Haake says it wasn’t some kind of magic trickery that got his team into the Class C-1 state playoffs and no witchcraft was involved in the Halloween shutout victory at Chadron last week to advance the Swedes into the third round.

It was simply hard hitting, never-back-down football.

“It wasn’t a fluke,” Haake said of Gothenburg’s 12-0 second-round victory over Chadron. “We beat the crap out of Cozad in the first round and we beat the crap out of Chadron in the second round. If we played them again, I don’t think it would be any different.”

The Swedes are on a roll, he said. It’s as simple as that.

And Gothenburg rolled past the Cardinals on the road Oct. 31, leaving no doubt who controlled the game.

“We were able to disrupt the timing of their passing plays,” Haake said. “We got up in their faces, we bumped them off their route and we pressured the quarterback every play.”

The Swedes used a three- or four-man defensive line, leaving more players for coverage against Chadron’s pass-heavy offense.

“It’s not very often you can put your defensive end out in pass coverage,” Haake said.

Ristine completed 5-of-6 passes for 113 yards including two receptions for 78 yards total by Koehler.

“If we continue to play the way we played against Chadron, we could be playing awhile,” Haake said.

The win advanced the Swedes to the third round of the Class C-1 state playoffs, facing Boone Central/Newman Grove in a Tuesday afternoon matchup that finished after press time.

Haake said he expected his young team to go into the game against the No. 1 seed in the west bracket with pride and confidence.

“We don’t mind being the underdog,” the coach said. “I’m guessing with a pair of playoff shutouts, we’ve already caught their eye. We’re just going to go play our game as best we can and be proud of the effort regardless of outcome.”

Complete results of the Tuesday game at Albion will be in next week’s issue of The Times.

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